12 Days of Christmas Traditions

Each day, for the next 12 days, I am going to be documenting the sweet Christmas Traditions that we have in our family. I'm planning to post about one of our traditions each day.

I wanted a fun way to write it all down, and I thought what better way than to use my favorite go-to song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

I think I use this for everything... it's great in music therapy sessions, and we even used it for our "sibling presentation" during my brother's wedding luncheon.

So, let's begin!

Day 1: Reading "Nog"

It's actually called, "Santa and the Haunted House," but for some reason I refer to it as "Nog."

Probably because that's the bad guys name. Here's a picture of him. He's the little purple guy next to Santa.

Anyway... Here's the history behind this tradition:

In 1963, while living in Rochester, MN, my Grandma Hicken cut this story, "Santa and the Haunted House," out of The Evening Tribune. It was a serial story with 17 chapters, beginning on December 8th and ending on Christmas Eve.

The reading of this story became an annual tradition in my dad's home as a young boy. When my parents started their own family, we continued the tradition.

I have such fond memories of gathering together for my dad to read a chapter each night. (I also remember not wanting him to stop after only one chapter.)

My mom had collected all of the clippings and typed it up into a homemade book, but last year she had it printed into a book for each of us 5 kids and gave it to us for Christmas so we could continue the tradition in our own families.

I'm really excited to start reading it with Brigham, and my sister (who started early b/c they're going to be traveling) said it has been SO much fun reading it with her little family.